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While there's an ever-increasing incidence of cyber threats, today, most organizations embrace the concept of the Zero Trust security framework, in the hope that no user, device, or system operating inside or outside the network is trusted by default. However, one of the crucial foundational pillars of establishing Zero Trust is Privileged Access Management, also known as PAM. It can be considered as a very important security control that regulates and monitors access to some of the most sensitive resources of an organization.
The Growing Need for Zero Trust
As remote working and cloud-based services are growing fast, the same is happening to the need to rethink traditional perimeter-based security models. According to Gartner, within three years, nearly 60% of all enterprises will replace their traditional VPNs with Zero Trust architecture. This model is based on the principle of "never trust, always verify," meaning that authentication, authorization, and continuous verification must happen on each user's or device's identity before access to sensitive resources can be granted.
Actually, privileged accounts—the administrator-level accounts with higher privilege levels—are one of the primary attack vectors for cybercriminals. In fact, according to Forrester Research, 80% of security breaches include privileged credentials; thus, a ready-made target for malicious actors exists within privileged accounts. PAM plays an important role here in the Zero Trust paradigm.
What is Privileged Access Management (PAM)?
Privilege access management is a collection of tools and best practices designed for securing, controlling, and monitoring privileged access to critical systems. Solutions to privileged access management ensure that users with elevated rights of access-that is, IT executives, administrators, IT staff-will gain access to only what's absolutely needed for them to do their job and for as little time as necessary. It also provides real-time monitoring and recording of privileged sessions to detect suspicious activity so that an effective response can be framed.
How PAM Supports Zero Trust
1.    Granular Access Control: PAM limits the scope of access for privileged users. For instance, enforcing the principle of least privilege will ensure that users only have access to exactly what is required in their roles, which limits the attack surface and reduces damage whenever an account is compromised.
2.    Multi-factor Authentication (MFA): The PAM solution includes multi-factor authentication, meaning that users are required to prove their identity so they can access the privileges. This makes it even more difficult for the attacker to mimic privileged users and conceal their activities in the event of stolen credentials.
3.    Session Monitoring and Auditing: Privileged sessions should be monitored in real time; therefore, if any unusual activity occurs, which is considered to be a breach of security, then it's essential to know them right away. PAM allows the organization to audit every action that users undertake, keeping a record of it and thus, holding them accountable.
4.    Just-in-Time (JIT) Access: PAM can provide access of user to privileged accounts, only for a time-bound period, which greatly reduces window of opportunities given for unauthorized access. Aligns with zero trust philosophy: reducing persistent accesses to critical systems
5.    Automated Threat Detection: Automated detection of threat through PAM solutions by continuous monitoring of privileged access behavior, so they can automatically flag and respond to such activities, like login times, anomalies, location-based anomalies, or unauthorized attempts at accessing certain systems.
The Statistics behind Privileged Access Risks
·      In Verizon's Data Breach Investigations Report for 2023, 61% of all breaches involve credentials, and privileged accounts remain the most targeted for hackers.
·      Centrify’s PAM survey show that 74% of organizations using PAM have experienced decreases in security incidents related to unauthorized access.
·      Cybercrime damages will reach $10.5 trillion globally in the year 2025, Cybersecurity Ventures stated, and privileged credential protection is key to preventing such costs.
PAM: A Crucial Layer in Zero Trust Adoption
Even with the best strategies for Zero Trust, organizations can immediately fall without proper management of privileged accounts. PAM ensures that only the right people have access to critical systems-and even those right people are continuously verified. As organizations invest in modern security architectures, implementing PAM is no longer optional but necessary.
Integrating PAM into a Zero Trust framework helps alleviate pressures for businesses battling insider threat, compromised accounts, and credential abuse, leaving that much more challenging work to would-be attackers within the exploitation of privileged access. The result is a more secure, resilient infrastructure better equipped to face the evolving nature of threats.
How Privileged Access Management Helps State and Local Agencies
Presently, state and local agencies are constantly under growing cyber threats especially those of privileged accounts. Privileged Access Management is one of the strongest controls against insider threats, to secure remote access and, therefore, would imply compliance with FISMA or HIPAA regulation. PAM repels ransomware attacks by maintaining strict controls over who has access to privileged accounts. Also, there is activity monitoring. Multi-factor authentication is integrated. This is directly applied towards Zero Trust policy and further strengthens the security of critical infrastructure.
This cost-effective answer boosts security with a reduced risk of operation.
How Government Agencies Enforce Privileged Access Management
Privileged Access Management in government agencies is enforced through several key strategies which enhance security and protect sensitive data. They use RBAC and, based on the least privilege principle, make sure that user IDs are able to access only those systems and data necessary for their respective roles. Agencies require Multi-Factor Authentication for all privileged accounts. Multiple verification steps must be completed before accessing information. Furthermore, PAM tools are used for continuous session monitoring and recording, thus enabling detection at real-time suspicious activities and keeping a full audit trail.
Agencies also follow the Just-in-Time (JIT) Access approach, which provides temporary access to privileged accounts for limited periods. This is because an agency can avoid unauthorized access by revoking privileges after use. Regular audits and compliance checks are conducted to verify compliance with security regulations and whether or not there is a possibility of security vulnerabilities. Using the above approaches, government agencies can effectively grant privileges to administer and establish access controls. Therefore, the risk of a breach on sensitive information will be minimal, and adherence to compliance will be guaranteed.
Conclusion
As threats continue to evolve, forward-thinking organizations are looking to a new security model: Zero Trust. With this architecture, Privileged Access Management remains critical to ensure that an organization's most sensitive information and systems are protected. It does this by controlling and monitoring and securing privileged accounts, which would improve security posture, reduce attack surface, and execute the core components of the principles of Zero Trust.
Privileged access management solutions by ESDS are built with compatibility in mind for use in conjunction with Zero Trust architectures and provide advanced features of granular access control, session monitoring, and multi-factor authentication. Therefore, with ESDS PAM, organizations can reduce the risk from privileged accounts by making access safe and monitored for only such authorized users who access critical systems.
However, organizations that aren’t using PAM as part of their Zero Trust strategy expose themselves to substantial risk since the number of cyber-attacks on privileged credentials is increasing. The statistics above illustrate the way in which proper use of PAM - especially by providing solutions such as ESDS's Privileged Access Management—can make all the difference in reinforcing security and making Zero Trust a plausible and practicable strategy for long-term defense.
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